Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 22:39:31 -0800
From: *THAT* Matt Weber
Subject: Re: (urth) The Book of Typhon part one, revised: Severian's true
>
> The first clue is The Tale of the Boy Called Frog . For=20
>economy=EDs sake I=EDll assume everyone=EDs read it. On the surface it=20
>seems to be a story told around Little Severian. Frog is raised by=20
>woodcutters and then orphaned and sheltered by the Black Killer=20
>(Severian) and the naked one (Apu Punchau). In a very real sense=20
>this is the case, but there is more to this. Spring Wind, the=20
>father of Frog and Fish, is Typhon, aka Typhoon, which is a spring=20
>storm. Wolfe hides this cleverly in two ways: First, the story=20
>occurs before Typhon is introduced and second, the name Spring Wind=20
>seems Asian in origin and makes the story seem as if it comes from=20
>the First Empire. The Black Killer who shelters Frog, is the=20
>Torturers Guild, and the Naked One, who has =ECnever had a son of=20
>Meschia to teach,=EE is none other than Father Inire who according to=20
>the Lexicon Urthus is the =ECvizier to countless Autarchs since Ymar=EE.=20
>He occurs as the Naked One in Sword and Citadel as the bent and=20
>masked guide (pp. 350-1). And here we have the answer: Ymar is the=20
>bastard son of Typhon, Frog, sheltered by the Black Killer and=20
>taught by the Naked One, who rules by the red flower.
Yeah, okay, but it's also a paraphrase of Kipling's Jungle Book; as I=20
recall, Mowgli means "Frog". The Black Killer is Bagheera, and the=20
Naked One stands in for Baloo.
I don't buy the exegesis, but it's certainly impressive.
Matt
L'ordre r=E8gne =E0 Varsovie.
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